Aingaran Pillai, London Borough of Camden (ICT)

Track:   Public Sector Open Source

Abstract: APLAWS+ (http://www.aplaws.org.uk): An open source content management system developed by the London Borough of Camden in partnership with Red Hat Ltd. as part of the Office of Deputy Prime Minister's National Projects Programme. From April 2003 to March 2004 the ODPM funded its development and up until March 2005 funded it's rollout and dissemination. The funding from the ODPM is now complete. Apart from the financial and specific support provided by these central government funded projects, the APLAWS+ concept has moved forward on its own momentum. There is an established user group which has already made considerable strides in taking the product set forward. However, unlike other Open Source communities, the APLAWS community is not made up of volunteer hackers, but is made up of web masters, managers and developers from local authorities, commercial suppliers, universities and schools. Most of the developments and enhancements are done by the various suppliers either through funded work or via support agreements. Some local authorities, like Camden have internal development teams, who also contribute to the development. Exploiting both the resources of the internal and supplier development team on the principles of open source development Camden has developed a cost effective procurement model. This it is hoped will encourage active interest from suppliers, mutually beneficial development for the users and continued development of the APLAWS+ product set.